home efficiency

The government’s decision to scrap the zero carbon homes target plus the equivalent for non-domestic houses is a major setback for achieving a low carbon UK and will undermine the credibility of the policy mix on building energy efficiency and beyond.[read more]

Pulling apart whole-home energy data and turning it into appliance-by-appliance breakdowns can help even the most inspired household energy-savers get more efficient. That’s according to a report released Wednesday that tracked the results of an 850-customer pilot project conducted last year.[read more]

A zero-energy building, also known as a zero net energy building, or net zero building, is a building with zero net energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site.[read more]

Property-assessed clean energy (PACE) loans for homes rebounded in a very big way last year. PACE looks to continue to gain steam in the coming year, but it is being joined by other investment vehicles bringing new life to residential energy efficiency.[read more]

The Consumer Electronics Association just issued its latest report on the amount of electricity used by consumer electronics and it’s finally begun to come down. However, the total is still enormous, equal to the output of more than 50 large power plants and costing consumers about $20 billion annually.[read more]

A recent Wall Street Journal article points out just how surprisingly weak the market for new homes is: America built less than half as many new homes between 2009 and 2013 as we did in the decade 1992 to 2002, before the housing bubble and its collapse.[read more]

Last spring, Nest unveiled its version of residential demand response known as Rush Hour Rewards. The offering was picked up by various big-name utilities. The results of that first year are in, and the programs are generally successful, but do not blow the competition out of the water.[read more]

After more than three years of conflict between large mortgage lenders and efficiency advocates, California is announcing that homeowners will soon be eligible for property-assessed clean energy (PACE) loans through the CaliforniaFIRST program.[read more]

Under a historic agreement announced recently, the electricity used by the more than 230 million set-top boxes installed in America’s homes by your cable, satellite, or telephone company will be slashed by 10 to 45 percent, depending on the model, and save consumers $1 billion annually.[read more]

While much of America's building stock is still a black box for energy use, this year has been an important one for transparency in the built environment. As leading virtual auditing companies have expanded their reach, they have uncovered trends in near-real time.[read more]

The United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change says it will make revisions to its Green Deal program, which has not had as much uptake in its first year as expected. It will make the Green Deal easier for consumers and the companies that operate in the market.[read more]

When major insurers offer discounts for lower risk customers, it's likely based on reliable evidence across a large population. Think lower car insurance rates for drivers with no speeding tickets. Discounts on life insurance for non-smokers.[read more]

The environmental movement has done a powerful job of bringing waste and electricity use to the forefront of public consciousness over the past few decades. Here are four new opportunities exist to take powerful action right now and make or save money in the process.[read more]

The better insulated and air tight your home is the more comfort you get from each unit of heat. In fact homes can even be so well insulated and air tight that they only need the sun, bodies, appliances and some heat recovery to stay comfortable. These homes are called passive houses.[read more]

Because a house remains roughly the same temperature over the course of a year its heat gains are equal to its heat losses. We can thank the first law of thermodynamics for this. Heat gains come from heating systems, the sun’s warmth and internal gains from things like appliances and body heat.[read more]